Comment on the August 11 prediction: We had a hike on August 13 to $3.65, so the prediction was pretty much CORRECT.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 8:00PM: Looks like Bill was a bit early with the spike prediction, but I see one coming Wednesday or Thursday. It seems that wholesale prices have been flat, but retail prices have drifted down to a level below the cost to dealers. That usually means it is price hike time. $3.75? — Ed Aboufadel
does anyone know what the market did in the last 2 days? is Michigan still in the “dangerzone” ?
I got the opinion reading the news on Murphy Oil’s site that spot went down a bit yesterday. I have no idea if it was enough or not.
I live in Fort Wayne, the one place in the whole United States with the notoriety of having the HIGHEST gas price spikes.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20130821/LOCAL/308219980/0/SEARCH
Saw that on gasbuddy. Every city at the top of the price swing list is in the Greedway Zone.
$3.69 Grand Rapids Michigan
$3.65 in Fort Wayne, being led once again by Lassus Handy Dandy, not by Speedway. Lassus has taken a paragraph out of Speedway’s book and turned it into a whole chapter, and now leads the hikes by several hours to an entire day.
Still 3.65 is not bad, look for little price drop and another spike in time for Labor Day…
Just a hunch..
It was down about 2 cents on Monday, back up 2 cents on Tuesday, and up again today about 3 cents. In the meantime, remember prices steadily go down about 1-2 cents a day depending on the area. It was 8 days since the last spike. Spot went up almost 10 cents in that time, and the pump price went down 10-14 cents. Spikes tend to happen under those conditions.
By the way, vacation is wonderful. Kids are having a blast, parents need a vacation from the vacation. Good thing I go back to work on Monday, or I’d go insane! 🙂
$3.29 Springboro Ohio
$3.599 sw Ohio. Greedway’s trying the same price that failed so miserably last week.
Premium has usually been 20 to 30 cents higher than regular, but at Costco in Orland Park, IL last night, Regular is selling for $3.53 and Premium for $4.09. Does anyone know why is there such a big differential?
Jack
Jack –
A lot of states are like that. In one affluent area of Houston, the price differential between 87 and 91 was almost $0.80. I’m a pilot, and I travel a lot for my job naturally, and one of the first things I do is look at gas prices when we go to the overnights. Compared to the Michigan area, a lot have the big price jumps between grades (not just $0.10 per grade), they will also charge less to credit unlike in Michigan where it seems to be a $0.10 if you use a card vs cash, and there also seems to be bigger swings between stations as opposed to all being relatively close to each other on pricing.
But on the flip side, prices are typically lower, and they don’t have $0.40 spikes all the time and then falling back down like we do. They are relatively stable.
While many bag on Speedway, there’s two things they don’t do. They don’t have more than 10 cents between grades, and they don’t charge different for cash/credit.
Bill
My two local Greedways in Grand Rapids have had 15 cent jumps between grades, making 91 30 cents higher than 87. My supercharger be darned that thing has cost a lot more in fuel over the years.
Looks like another hike between Tuesday and Thursday this week. Theres a 20 cent margin for the spike line. There had to be another hike so that those greedy bleeps could vacation for Labor Day.
I’m guessing that tensions in Syria are going to have a big effect on prices in the coming weeks, and could spark a price hike this week.
prices in Flint only began to dip last nite below the 3.59 hover they held all weekend. 342 is the low, and Id predict no more than 3.35 ( at the low stations) before the pre holiday spike is likely to hit. this slow mo ratchet down lately all seems gauged to lift prices to just below 4 again in time for labor day/hurricane time
Its hard to gauge what is going on. But we have been overdue for a price spike for a while, and two days WAY below the cost to purchase. The way I see it, there can only be three possible reasons. Any other sane ideas, I’m open to hearing them. (1)What we are seeing as a wholesale cost is way higher than what the stations are paying -not needing to buy spot since demand is way lower than they expected? -hoping their contracted deliveries will get them through the end of the month? (2)Stations are holding out for a thread of hope that wholesale costs will ease. (3)Stations are holding out for later in the week when they know the price can’t drop prior to Labor Day. Just a couple of stupid thoughts.
Jack asked…
“Premium has usually been 20 to 30 cents higher than regular, but at Costco in Orland Park, IL last night, Regular is selling for $3.53 and Premium for $4.09. Does anyone know why is there such a big differential? – See more at: http://www.thegasgame.com/2013/08/20/another-price-hike-itch-to-scratch/#comments”
For the Chicago gasoline formulation, wholesale for 93 octane has been running 35-50 cents over 87 octane for a couple years now. 92 octane is a couple cents less. There are still a few stations over here selling with a 10 cent spread between grades and presumably they sell so little of the higher grades they haven’t noticed/don’t care that they are making LESS per gallon on those grades. Speedway in Illinois made the long overdue move to 20 cents spread between grades back in June and most have followed.
Regarding the big wholesalers, I have no idea how they set their prices. Sam’s near me may bounced between about a 25 and 40 cent spread from reg to prem from one day to the next.
Jim
Without me researching, there must be a difference in “premium” between Michigan and Illinois. Here, premium is 91 octane and averages 30-50 cents higher than 87. Illinois has 93 that is the same 30-50 cents higher? That’s telling me I’m overpaying for my 91.
Derek…
Unfortunately this daily source of average dealer wholesale – http://www.axxispetro.com/download/wisconsin-cta.txt – has no terminals east of Wisconsin and Illinois. It is provided by Axxis as a free service to the state of Wisconsin to help them enforce their minimum markup law. Many of those in this list are 25-30 cents difference where 91 octane is listed, So maybe more than a 30 cents spread does mean the dealers in Michigan are making more on premium than on regular. Although up in Minneapolis today it is 44 cents.